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Raising a toast to local brew

The headlines might say that Canadians are losing their taste for beer, but that’s only half the story.

At the LCBO and The Beer Store, sales of craft beer — beer made in small batches by independent brewers — are shooting through the roof. The number of craft breweries is growing, the beers they brew are increasing in variety and quality, and there’s more collaboration with top local chefs.

Starting Sunday , the Ontario Craft Brewers — an association of 25 independent breweries — is holding the first annual Ontario Craft Beer Week to help turn even more drinkers on to local suds. There are more than 60 events scattered around the province, including brewery tours, tastings and a week-ending festival at Toronto’s Sunnyside Pavilion.

There’s plenty of cause for celebration, says Ken Woods, a member of the OCB’s executive board, and president of Etobicoke’s Black Oak Brewing.

“Joe Sixpack is starting to realize that there’s more to beer than just an icy-cold bottle of beer. There are a lot of different flavours out there.”

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Woods sees more bars stocking his beer, more restaurants paying as much attention to beer as wine, and new fans attending beer festivals.

That’s a big change from a decade ago, when Black Oak Pale Ale first came out.

“When I started, it was a struggle just to get people to even try our beer at all,” remembers Woods. “They didn’t know what craft beer was.”

Mill Street brewmaster Joel Manning, who’s been part of the local brewing scene since 1986, believes part of the reason for craft beer’s growing success is that it’s simply being better made better.

“People doing the work have different skill-sets than they had back then when I started. Technically, the brewing is at a much higher standard, for the most part,” says Manning, adding that drinkers are also becoming more savvy about different beer styles.

Restaurants are also starting to realize there’s good beer being made on their doorsteps. With the local food movement gaining strength, serving locally produced beers with locally grown food is a natural fit, says Brad Long, chef/owner at Veritas restaurant and My Place pub.

“Part of what’s appealing about serving local food is being able to look the person in the eye who created it, and to see their passion. With these guys (local brewers), you can definitely see the passion,’’ says Long during the recent Brewers Plate.

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The annual event, a fundraiser for Green Enterprise Ontario, brings together chefs and brewers. Each chef pairs local ingredients with beer from one of the craft brewers. In some cases, they cook with it. Long braised wild boar in Cameron’s Auburn Ale and served it shredded in a crêpe. Roughly three quarters of the beer served at both Long’s restaurants is local.

Other non-beercentric restaurants are starting to pay more attention to good suds — both local and otherwise. At Ossington Street restaurant Böhmer, veteran chef Paul Boehmer has unveiled a series of brewer’s dinners, creating a tasting menu to pair with the beers from a different Ontario brewery each month. Le Sélect Bistro, renowned for its 15,000-bottle wine cellar, has a well-chosen list of 90 beers, which pair well with the classic French bistro fare. Last year, underground supper club Charlie’s Burgers had a beer-pairing dinner, albeit with Scottish import Innis & Gunn. Of course, at beer havens like Beerbistro, Bar Volo and Biermarkt, pairing beer with food is second nature.

If there has been one criticism of Ontario craft brewers, it’s that they’ve played it safe, producing well-crafted but ultimately not terribly interesting beers. That, too, has started to change, says Leanne Rhee, who runs the LCBO’s beer and cider category.

“Certainly the quality has progressed greatly, but we’re also starting to see them (Ontario brewers) push the envelope more,’’ says Rhee.

“Where before you might have seen someone bringing out a basic lager or pilsner, now they’re starting to go for bolder styles. Some of that is the influence of American craft brewers.”

Several Ontario breweries are now brewing hoppy India Pale Ales, or rich, strong Imperial Stouts. Black Oak recently brewed a double IPA (higher in alcohol and hops than standard IPAs) as an anniversary beer. It sold out in days. Beau’s, from the Ottawa-area town of Vankleek Hill, recently collaborated with the Dutch Trappist brewery Koningshoeven on a wheat beer to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Canadian liberation of the Netherlands. Grand River Brewing has been aging a Flemish-style sour beer in oak barrels for over a year, and plans to sell just a little bit at a time.

Despite all this progress, the picture isn’t completely rosy. Even though sales of Ontario craft beer have grown 46 per cent at the LCBO in the last year, local brewers only hold about 5 per cent of the provincial market. That figure, however, includes discount brands made by craft brewers such as Laker, brewed by Brick Brewing. Stripping out the discount stats, premium beer made by local craft brewers has roughly 2 per cent of the market.

Most Ontario craft brewers struggle to break even, Woods says. Many have breweries cobbled together with used equipment obtained in bankruptcy sales.

“I’d say most people are losing less money,” Woods says. “The biggest of the small breweries are probably making a bit, but nobody’s getting rich doing this.”

Then there are the listing fees for selling at The Beer Store or the sometimes-onerous approvals process for listing a product at the LCBO. And don’t even mention the early mornings cleaning out equipment and brewing, long hours of lugging heavy bags of grain, and driving around the province on deliveries.

So why do it?

“I guess I’m just too stubborn or too stupid to quit. And I like what I’m doing,’’ says Woods with a grin.

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